North Carolina Landscaping License: What Applies and What Does Not
What North Carolina requires of a landscaping business in 2026, what the LLC has to file first, and where the license and the entity are two separate steps.
By Edmond Hui · Last updated: September 2026
Affiliate disclosure: We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Form your LLC with ZenBusiness$0 service fee plus your state's filing fee. Registered agent free for year one.Not sure which service is right? Compare formation services →
North Carolina landscaping licensing at a glance
| State credential required for this work? | Yes, with conditions |
| What it is called | Landscape Contractor License |
| Who issues it | North Carolina Landscape Contractors' Licensing Board |
| Must the business itself be licensed? | Yes |
| A figure appears in the rules, with conditions | $30,000, see below |
Does a landscaping business need a license in North Carolina?
North Carolina issues the Landscape Contractor License for landscapers.
North Carolina licenses landscape contracting under Chapter 89D of the General Statutes through the North Carolina Landscape Contractors' Licensing Board, which is the name the definition at Section 89D-11 gives the board rather than Registration Board. Section 89D-17(g) requires the company on whose behalf a licensee signs to be licensed as well, so the LLC and a supervising individual both hold licenses. Section 89D-13 exempts a job site where the price of all contracts for labor, material and other items in any consecutive 12 month period is under $30,000, and separately exempts lawn mowing, turf edging, debris removal, turf management, lawn care, clearing and grading, erosion control and arboriculture at any value.
The landscaping business itself must be licensed or registered, not only the people doing the work.
This records what North Carolina publishes, not a determination about your business. Scope, thresholds and local requirements are set by the issuing body, so confirm with them before you bid or file.
Source: N.C. Gen. Stat. 89D-13, Exemptions. Verified 2026-09-03.
What the LLC has to do first
Pesticide and herbicide application is licensed separately from landscaping itself in most states, and that license is usually the one a general landscaping business actually needs.
The entity filing is separate from anything the license requires. In North Carolina it is made with the North Carolina Secretary of State. File directly with the state here. The order matters wherever the license is issued to the company rather than to a person: the entity has to exist before an application can name it.
Forming an LLC as a landscaping business in North Carolina covers the filing itself, step by step.
Insurance North Carolina landscapers are asked to show
Landscaping work damages what it is next to: irrigation lines, fences, windows and parked cars. General liability is the cover for that, and commercial clients ask for the certificate before the first visit.
We do not publish North Carolina premium figures for this trade, so nothing here is a quote. Our business insurance guide for landscapers covers what each policy does and does not pay for.
This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It reports what each state licensing board publishes for this trade, with the sources this page cites. It cannot tell you whether your own work needs a licence: that turns on the scope of the job, the value of the contract, and the city or county you work in, which commonly adds its own registration on top of the state's. Confirm your own position with the board named on this page and with your local building or business licensing office before you bid or start work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Formation Services Compared
Forming an LLC in North Carolina?
See how Northwest Registered Agent, Bizee, ZenBusiness and LegalZoom, the formation services we partner with, compare on 3-year cost, BBB rating and Trustpilot score before you choose.
Ready to Form Your North Carolina LLC?
Affiliate disclosure: We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Form your LLC with ZenBusiness$0 service fee plus your state's filing fee. Registered agent free for year one.Not sure which service is right? Compare formation services →
Edmond Hui · Founder, MyStateLLC
Edmond Hui is a software engineer and serial entrepreneur based in New York who has founded multiple online businesses across e-commerce, media, and information publishing. Before transitioning into tech, he spent years as a commercial real estate professional closing deals totaling over 100,000 square feet, giving him firsthand experience with business formation and entity structuring. He built MyStateLLC to provide the free, state-specific LLC guidance he wished existed when forming his own companies.